Thank you again and again to everyone reading, reviewing, and following. And for the guests to whom I cannot directly respond, a couple of quick notes: I will keep writing this story until my muse says it is finished, but we have a long way to go before that time as of right now.
Secondly, to the person who said that when Alexis broke up Meredith and Gina's press conference, the press would have known who she was, my impression from the show was always that while the press may have known that Castle had a daughter, Alexis didn't do publicity for her dad's books or really talk to the press directly, in my recollection. Castle would definitely have shielded Alexis from the press as much as he could because that's just the kind of terrific dad he is.
A short update now to get you through the next few days. I hope you enjoy it.
Martha went to Kate's bedside first. "You gave us quite a scare, Katherine," she said, leaning down to carefully hug Kate. Kate carefully hugged Martha back. When Martha broke the hug, she saw the look on Richard's face and what he clearly wanted to say: "What am I, chopped liver?"
"You both gave us quite a scare," Martha said as she went to her son's bedside to give him a careful hug.
"Martha, I promise you, I...we," Kate corrected herself, "will do everything in our power not to scare you like this again." She looked at her own father now. "None of you," she said.
Jim stepped forward and leaned down to kiss Kate's cheek. "Let's just focus on getting you and Rick recovered and back on your feet for now," Jim said.
"No, Dad," Kate surprised everyone by saying. "I mean it." She looked over at Castle, then met her father's gaze squarely before continuing, "There are some things Rick and I have to discuss...a lot of things...but it's not going to be like it has been. No more scares like this." She reached out for Jim's hand, and, surprised, he slipped his hand into hers, trying to remember when the last time Kate had given him her hand to hold was.
Jim felt the tears welling up in his eyes, wondering if Katie was saying what it sounded to him like she was saying. He didn't bother to try to hide them. He coughed, then cleared his throat, but was at a complete loss for words.
"You and I have a lot of things to discuss too," Kate said then. "Because you and me, Dad...I don't want us to be like it has been either. We can do better. We can be better. And I want that."
"I want that too," Jim said, his voice thick with emotion.
"Is there anything we can bring you, or get for you?" Martha asked then, looking from Richard to Katherine and back again.
"I don't think they're going to let us have real food just yet, let alone coffee," Kate said.
Castle began waving his left hand exaggeratedly then. "Did you think of something?" Kate asked him. "I think Dr. Gallison took the pad and pen with him."
Castle grunted, holding up his left hand, his palm facing himself, and waggled his fingers. It took Kate a moment to realize that his ring finger was bare. A glance down at her own left hand confirmed that her wedding ring was gone as well.
The last time she had lost her wedding ring, Kelly Nieman had taken it. Rather than revisit that particular nightmare, Kate focused on the fact that she didn't have her wedding ring now, and she really needed it. "My wedding ring!" she exclaimed. "And Rick's wedding ring! Where are they? We have to have them!"
"I'll get them for you," Jim said, heading for the door.
"You two couldn't wear them into surgery," Martha explained.
Jim returned a moment later with his right hand closed into a tight fist. He extended his arm and opened his hand to reveal Kate and Rick's wedding rings resting in his palm.
Kate breathed an audible sigh of relief, then groaned, because breathing that forcefully pulled at her abdominal stitches. Undeterred, she plucked Rick's wedding ring from her father's palm and Martha deftly stepped back as Rick extended his left hand. Kate slid the ring back on his finger, then smiled at him. His eyes beamed back at her.
Jim moved closer to Rick, and Rick picked up Kate's wedding ring from Jim's palm. He frowned slightly as he realized that Kate's right side was the side of her body closest to his. Kate struggled to a sitting position once more. "Easy there," Martha said as she helped Kate sit up. Kate slowly moved her left arm across her body. Hello pain, my old nemesis, she thought. Rick leaned out the side of his bed as far as he could, Jim rushing to his side to steady him, lest he fall out of bed and hurt himself further, and with Martha helping Kate sit upright, and Jim helping Rick stay in his hospital bed, Rick slid Kate's wedding ring back into place. The feel of the cool metal band that she felt naked without now, after almost two years of wearing it, helped steady and calm her, as much as the man who had given it to her almost two years ago did, then, now, and for always. She smiled back at him, and then their parents helped get them settled back in their beds.
"You have a lot of other people waiting to see you," Martha said then, "but we'll be just outside."
"We'll have that talk whenever you're ready, Katie," Jim told his daughter.
"Okay," Kate agreed. As Martha and Jim headed for the door, Kate called, "Dad?" Jim turned back to look at her. "I just wanted to say that I love you."
"I love you too, Katie," Jim replied, smiling a smile at her that reached his eyes.
After Jim and Martha emerged into the hallway, Alexis and Lanie went in next. Lanie greeted Kate and Castle with a hearty, "You two look like hell."
"It's nice to see you too, Lanie," Kate replied, but she mustered a small smile.
"Hey, we're all just relieved that you're still here to look like hell," Lanie said. "How are you feeling?"
"The pain is familiar," Kate said.
"Well, don't think you're shutting yourself off from everybody again to recover, because we're not gonna let you get away with that. We know you have each other this time, but you have all of us too," Lanie said.
"That's right," Alexis added.
"We won't," Kate promised.
Castle reached his hand out toward Alexis. Alexis stepped over so her dad could squeeze her hand, and she squeezed his hand back, hoping to reassure him. He looked at her with concern. "Speaking of looking like hell," Kate said, opting for truth over subtlety, concern for Alexis in her eyes as well, "you look exhausted, Alexis. You should go home and get some real sleep and some real food."
"I will later," Alexis stalled. She was dreading going back to the loft, and she wanted to talk to Kate and her dad before she left the hospital for even a little while.
"You two should be proud of this girl," Lanie said, stepping forward and putting an arm around Alexis's shoulders then. "Not only did she convince the doctors that the two of you needed to be in the same room, because we all know if you weren't, you'd just be crawling back and forth to each other's rooms the whole time, popping stitches and dragging IV lines behind you-"
"You're not wrong," Kate interrupted, and the look in Castle's eyes said that he agreed completely.
"...but when Meredith and Gina practically got into a catfight outside the hospital, Alexis put them both in their place, with a terrific assist from Gates," Lanie concluded.
Rick's eyes lit up at the words "Meredith," "Gina," and "catfight" in the same sentence. Kate knew exactly what her husband was thinking, but it didn't stop her from rolling her eyes as she asked the question she knew Rick would be blurting out if he could. "Is there video of this catfight?"
"No," Alexis said. Lanie, Alexis, and even Kate all laughed, Kate's laugh short and pained, at how quickly Castle deflated at this disappointment.
"Castle, it wasn't like they were pulling each other's hair and poking each other's eyes out," Lanie said with an eye roll of her own.
"What were they even doing here?" Kate asked.
Alexis's face hardened so fast, it surprised both Kate and Rick, but not Lanie. "They were trying to use your shooting as a means to their own ends," she said.
"Meaning Gina was trying to get publicity for the Nikki Heat books," Kate finished. "I get that. I don't like it, but I get it." The look on Castle's face mirrored Kate's words exactly, and she knew there would be hell for Gina to pay when Castle finally got to talk to Gina about this. "But I don't understand Meredith. What would she have to gain?"
"Oh, she was trying to play the concerned ex-wife, but in reality, she was just using your shooting to get her own name in the paper," Lanie scoffed. "I guess it's hard out there for no-talent actresses of a certain age."
"What did you say to them?" Kate asked Alexis. Rick was looking at his daughter curiously now, wondering the same thing.
Alexis shifted her weight back and forth from foot to foot. Kate and her dad were both staring at her intently now, and she wondered idly if they were this intent when they had a suspect in the interrogation room. "The truth," she said simply. "That they weren't wanted or needed here, and they should go."
Rick had no doubts about either Gina's or Meredith's motives, but he was concerned at how Alexis had taken Meredith being there, since he knew as well as Alexis did that Meredith was not there to console Alexis. She was too self-centered for that, for one thing, although Rick had always done his best not to badmouth Meredith to Alexis. But his little girl wasn't a little girl anymore, and she was certainly old enough and smart enough to understand that she didn't have to understand about Meredith's lack of presence in her life anymore if she didn't want to. He would be glad when this breathing tube was removed and he could talk to Alexis, and to Kate, and to everyone else, instead of having to scribble questions and promises on a pad of paper.
"And you got the hospital to put us in the same room?" Kate asked.
"I just knew you wouldn't want to be apart," Alexis said. "And Dr. Parrish is right. You would have hurt yourselves trying to get to each other if you were separated."
"I would have-" Kate started to say, then stopped.
"You would have what?" Lanie asked.
Alexis realized that Kate remembered what had happened in the overnight hours, when she had first woken up and thought Rick was dead. Kate and Alexis exchanged a look that confused both Lanie and Rick. "You wanna share with the rest of the class?" Lanie asked then. Rick looked concerned now as he gazed back and forth between his daughter and his wife.
"We'll talk about it later," Kate said, looking from Lanie to Rick as reassuringly as she could. She had been about to say, I would have hurt myself trying to get to Castle when I thought he was dead, but she remembered that all too painfully clearly, and she knew that Lanie hadn't been here for those awful moments. But Alexis had...as had Kate's dad and Martha and Esposito. Why had Esposito been here then? That was something else they could figure out later.
Lanie wisely decided not to push, since she could see how tired Kate was getting, how much effort she was putting forth to appear like this was just some minor thing when they all knew just how major this was for both Kate and Castle.
"Well, I'm sure the boys will want to come in next, and Gates is out there too, and so's Jenny," Lanie said. She went over to give Kate a hug and a kiss on the cheek, and then she did the same to Castle. "I have to say, Castle, this is the longest I've ever known you to be silent." When Castle rolled his eyes at Lanie's observation and gestured to the breathing tube down his throat, Lanie chortled with glee. "I guess it's true what they say," she said. "When couples have been together for a long time, they start acting like each other, because that was a patented Beckett eye roll if I ever saw one. Don't make it a habit, though, Castle. It doesn't look as right on you as it does on Kate." And then, with careful hugs for both Kate and Castle, Lanie left not only the room but the hospital, to fulfill her promise to bring back coffee and pastries for everyone else.
"We'll send Detectives Esposito and Ryan in next," Alexis said. She hugged and kissed both Rick and Kate before leaving the room.
